Wednesday, March 17, 2010

IPL a boon to cricket lovers!

Well it has been almost 6 days since the third edition of the Indian Premier League has kick started and no doubt that it has drawn the same craze that the previous two editions have managed to draw. Though there is hardly anything new in the third edition of the IPL compared to its previous two editions, this has not been able to stop people to switch on their television sets after coming home from work and has not stopped people from going to the stadiums and watch their teams play in case matches are being held in their cities.

One has to indeed salute the organizers of the same and the people who came out with such an idea. This is one such platform where cricket lovers can see their heroes who have called it a day from international cricket long back take to their favorite cricket kits once again. It was fun to see the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn and others who were last seen some 3 years ago playing for their country. And, one could fulfill their dreams of watching Sachin Tendulkar playing T20 cricket when the BCCI had ruled out any scope for the senior players prior to the inaugural edition of the world T20 in 2007.

The only man who would be cursing to a little extent would be Shane Warne who was found feeling happy that he need not bowl at Sachin Tendulkar once again which proved to be wrong during matches between the Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians. Worst is the fact that Shane Warne has to share the toss with Sachin with both of them captaining their respective sides. And, lesser known players can not only make money but also keep their hopes alive of making it to the international squad atleast once after their performance though the same is far from guaranteed.

And, the other fact is that for a duration of close to 2 months, the entire world can be seen playing for just one country that is India. In addition, one can see a clash between two players playing against each other when they would be rubbing shoulders otherwise. Also, one can see players from two different teams playing for the same team in the IPL. A player from a particular state need no necessarily play for the team where he has learnt to play cricket like we have Suresh Raina and Dhoni playing for and captaining Chennai Superkings when the place of birth points to Gujarat and Jharkhand.

And finally, this is one such platform where people enjoy the game of cricket rather than favoring one team like it happens in international cricket where an Indian fan goes home disappointed whenever India loses the match. This is not the case here where, irrespective of who wins and who loses, fans go back home happily keeping in mind the fact that it was an Indian side that won no matter that it was an Indian side who lost as well.

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